Manipulating matter at the nanometer scale is important for many electronic, chemical and biological advances (See Li et al., “Ion beam sculpting at nanometer length scales”, Nature, 412: 166–169, 2001). These pores have also been effective in localizing molecular-scale electrical junctions and switches (See Li et al., “Ion beam sculpting at nanometer length scales”, Nature, 412: 166–169, 2001).
Artificial nanopores have been fabricated by a variety of research groups with a number of materials. Generally, the approach is to fabricate these nanopores in a solid-state material or a thin freestanding diaphragm of material supported on a frame of thick silicon. One material that has been used is silicon nitride. Silicon nitride diaphragms exhibit high burst pressures due to high yield strength of the silicon nitride material and due to moderate-to-high tensile stresses built into the diaphragm material that keeps the diaphragm uniformly flat. It is desirable to use other materials such as polymers, metals, and self-assembled monloayers for nanopore fabrication, but most materials are weaker than silicon nitride and may exhibit compressive stress. It, therefore, is desirable to have a diaphragm structure with an insert region of a dissimilar material that is capable of being used for nanopore fabrication, wherein neither the diaphragm nor the insert region suffer from the problems of buckling before or after fabrication. It is also desirable to provide a diaphragm structure that exhibits high burst pressures and does not wrinkle. In addition, it is desirable to provide a method for making these structures at the nanometer scale. These and other problems with the prior art processes and designs are obviated by the present invention. The references cited in this application infra and supra, are hereby incorporated in this application by reference. However, cited references or art are not admitted to be prior art to this application.